Concentrating solar power - what is it?...

Last night I was reading through the Beyond Zero Emissions summary report, the one which lays out a plan for Australia to move to 100% renewable energy by 2020. Their plan relies lots of energy efficiency to cut back on the amount of baseload we need. Then we switch to nearly 40% wind power, which we’re all familiar with, and on nearly 60% ‘concentrating solar thermal’, which I had to look up. CST is really...

Would you like a green, clean job?...

Recently I posted about ending the coal industry in Australia. Although it only contributes 1.3% of Australia’s employment, that’s still over 200,000 people affected by the change. But it doesn’t have to mean that they’re out of work - we’ll be needing lots of people to work in new clean energy industries. Plus, we can’t be telling our kids to head off to the mines and rigs for a well-paid...

Coal: not necessary for our future...

Back in the 1880s when people first started building coal-fired electricity generators, we had no idea that we were messing with the delicate balance of our atmosphere. But now we do know: coal contributes 20% of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Australia is currenlty the world’s 4th largest coal producer. We use 80% of our coal ourselves, which is why we have the world’s highest GHG emissions...

Wave power: clean energy for the future...

Pelamis wave power station in Scotland There’s a lot of fuss over solar and wind power in Australia lately, but they’re not the only alternatives to coal-fired energy here. We’ve also got a nice, long coastline, and I reckon we should also be looking into the potential of wave power. The basic idea behind wave power is that wind blowing across the surface of the ocean transfers energy to the water, whipping...